World Faiths: The War Within

­­­And man asks for evil as he should ask for good; and man is hasty.

 ISLAM, THE HOLY QUR’AN, 17:12

All human beings are sinners; the best of the sinners are those who repent.

ISLAM, THE HOLY PROPHET (SA), SUNAN IBN MAJAH

It is characteristic of the human self that it incites man to evil and is opposed to his attainment of perfection and to his moral state, and urges him towards undesirable and evil ways. Thus the propensity towards evil and intemperance is a human state which predominates over the mind of a person before he enters upon the moral state.

ISLAM, THE PROMISED MESSIAH (AS), THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE TEACHINGS OF ISLAM, P.4 

Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 

CHRISTIANITY, THE BIBLE, MATTHEW 18:1-3

This body is mortal, always gripped by death, but within it dwells the immortal Self. This Self, when associated in our consciousness with the body, is subject to pleasure and pain; and so long as this association continues, freedom from pleasure and pain can no man find.

HINDUISM, CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD, 8.12.1

The mind is said to be twofold:
The pure and also the impure;
Impure – by union with desire;
Pure – from desire completely free.

HINDUISM, MAITRI UPANISHAD, 6.34

By oneself alone is evil done; it is self-born, it is self-caused. Evil grinds the unwise as a diamond grinds a hard gem.

BUDDHISM, DHAMMAPADA, 161

Yes, there are two fundamental spirits, twins which are renowned to be in conflict. In thought and in word, in action, they are two: the good and the bad. And between these two, the beneficent have correctly chosen, not the maleficent.

ZOROASTRIANISM, AVESTA, YASNA, 30.3